(This was originally a comment to this article on CiF)
I'm getting tired of people using all encompassing statements about the Lib Dems betrayal.
So some MPs (not the party, the pledge was a single MP act across constituencies, which some MPs broke) broke their promise in voting for something that is a better solution than the possibly £12-14k fees the Tories may well have brought in. Tough situation that some all too black and white viewers can't understand.
Nor, clearly, do those people understand how the Lib Dem party policy machine works. You can claim that you can never trust the Lib Dems again, yet they're the only party I can look at (as a non-affiliated voter) and know precisely what policies they would aim to make real if they had controlling power.
So people are going to stop voting Lib Dem, maybe go to Labour or to a set of minority parties? Fine, it's your choice, but if you're doing it thinking you're going to get a better deal than the Lib Dem policy to scrap tuition fees for first degrees then you are, simply, a moron.
But on to other things...did the Lib Dems betray me and my vote? I dislike the tuition fee rise, but I'd have disliked a larger rise more, we also know Labour would have raised the cap.
They've also put in to motion the end of child detention, I don't feel betrayed there. They've scrapped ID cards, finally enacted the european ruling (that Labour dithered over) for giving at least some prisoners their right to vote back, they will be repealing more illiberal and authoritarian law, including the possibility of removal of control orders and 28 day detention without charge. I don't feel betrayed there either. A referendum on a voting system that will finally give people a complete voice in their constituency, not a hint of betrayal. The income tax allowance will be increased, no betrayal again. Trident renewal shelved, married couple tax breaks shelved, more ambitious green targets...all a far shout from feelings of betrayal.
The reality is that the Lib Dems are delivering on an awful lot of what they said they would, unfortunately the Tories are doing the same, we get the "best" of both worlds, but on some issues like Tuition fees those who voted for Lib Dems have not got it entirely as they'd wish.
Betrayed? Not even close.
The betrayal charge only really sticks because of the unique NUS pledge that all Lib Dem MPs signed, and 60% broke. Without this specific pledge, scrapping tuition fees was just one of the hundreds of policies in the manifesto, and therefore droppable as part of the compromise process that forms a coalition.
ReplyDeleteI do question, however, how many votes were genuinely won specifically because of signatures on this pledge. Those who would have voted Lib Dem on the scrap tuition fees policy alone, regardless of the NUS pledge, can't honestly feel betrayed.
Of course people do like to go along with a meme when they are disappointed by a party. There will be voters who voted for the Lib Dems because of other policies which didn't make it into the Coalition Agreement and feel let down. There will also be Lib Dem voters who are predominantly Anti-Tory, and also feel let down. While they haven't been betrayed in the technical sense, it's easy (and perhaps understandable) to go along with the rhetoric.
'It Could Have Been Worse' is an excuse for supporting absolutely anything at all...
ReplyDeleteCandidates personally signed pledges specifically worded in a particular way and then went back on them. No acceptible excuse is possible.
The LibDems have go a referendum on AV - job done, they have nothing further to do this parliament. Anything they do do will be negative for them ('could have done better' is an excuse for decrying absolutely anything at all...).
They should wait for the referendum, and (assuming a win for AV) wait for the legislation being brought in - then dissolve the government without delay, so we can have our first AV general election and have a new parliament of MPs with real mandates...
"'It Could Have Been Worse' is an excuse for supporting absolutely anything at all..."
ReplyDeleteI don't support the tuition fee hike. I do, however, understand it for what it is...which is better than what would have happened WITHOUT the Lib Dems.
I personally feel very much in the same camp as Mike Smithson, who showed fairly clearly how much easier it would have been to honour those pledges if those same young people feeling so "betrayed" had actually turned up to vote as they said they would. It's not just politician's pledges that weren't worth the paper they were written on this year.
Lee, I admire you for staying loyal to your party, however they got themselves in to this situation through pure power hungry leaders like Laws, Clegg and Cable.
ReplyDeleteYou argue that it is one policy that they have had to compromise on, but you miss the point. The Lib Dems were the one party that no only put it in their manifesto but actively signed pledges to vote against any rise in tuition fees. Now you try and raise the fact that Labour would have done the same, maybe so, however they never went in to an election parading round students unions with their signed pledge.
The Lib Dems should never have gone in to coalition with the conservatives or labour. If they had allowed the conservatives to go in to minority government they would have had a greater impact on any policy that would need parliamentary approval whilst retaining their parties independence. Instead they are a weaker party having to agree to deals they do not fundamentally agree with in order to protect the 'coalition agreement'.
Greed is what got them where they are, and greed is what will see the end of the liberals at the next local and general election.
As I've said before, Lib Dems aren't my party...I'm not "staying loyal" I'm looking at reality. If the Lib Dems truly go and do something awful, I'll say so and realign my perception accordingly.
ReplyDelete"The Lib Dems were the one party that no only put it in their manifesto but actively signed pledges to vote against any rise in tuition fees."
All it proves is that people shouldn't sign pledges. The fact is that the Tories were NEVER going to allow tuition fees to remain the same, they had also committed to the Browne review. I know you'd be happier if the Tory supporters of the nation were the ones shouting betrayal at Cameron and Osborne, but as the majority shareholder of power you *know* that this would not have happened.
This is why I dislike the whole "Black or White" thinking, because Lib Dems had to weigh up the other greater good they could achieve in coalition versus breaking the coalition up over this one policy. Yes, key policy, one I wish hadn't gone through...but ultimately not the worst policy to slip through.
If anything I'm more angry about the Lib Dems not putting strong blocks on issues like housing benefit changes which truly will affect people negatively straight away.
"If they had allowed the conservatives to go in to minority government they would have had a greater impact on any policy that would need parliamentary approval whilst retaining their parties independence."
We would also have had a harder time in the global financial market, could have started to face the kinds of problems Spain are now seeing with investor concern, and wouldn't have any of the Lib Dem policies that are applaudable on the books.
Again, it's not as black or white as you make out.